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EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2011

Citizen fund investments

More and more people are investing their money in citizens' funds. People can invest a small amount of money to help organizations that are tackling issues close to people, such as community building, nursing care support for the elderly and care of children after school classes are over.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2011

Downside of higher tobacco tax

One point of agreement on the Sept. 27 editorial "Health side of tobacco tax" — the Japanese government should sell its shares of Japan Tobacco as well as all shares of any other private company it owns. Governments have no business taking stakes in private companies because it will inevitably cause...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 2, 2011

Bikes keep the wheels of progress rolling

With the onslaught of super typhoon No. 15 on Sept. 21-22, for the second time in a little over six months Tokyo's public transport network was snarled by a natural disaster. Several hundreds of thousands of hapless commuters found themselves stranded for hours as kitaku nanmin ("refugees" unable to...
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2011

Japan's cyber vulnerability

On Sept. 19, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan's biggest defense contractor, said that traces of hackers' access to its computers had been found. The next day, IHI Corp., another major defense contractor, said that it was also exposed to cyber attacks. Two other defense contractors — Mitsubishi...
BASEBALL
Oct 1, 2011

Deadline passes for Japan-WBC deal

Major League Baseball is beginning to prepare for a 2013 World Baseball Classic without Japan, but the door is open for a change of heart from the two-time defending champions.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2011

Agenda of imperatives for 7 billion

Late next month, a child will be born — the 7 billionth citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2011

With backing, biomass can help meet energy needs

Last in a series
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2011

New Softbank lineup stresses need for speed

The new product lineup unveiled Thursday by Softbank Corp. reflected the intensifying competition among carriers to provide the fastest ready phones and network services.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2011

The real financial rogues

The story of the latest "rogue trader" who allegedly cost his Swiss employer $2.3 billion in fraudulent trading is a marvelous one, especially since the alleged rogue, Kweku Adoboli, was praying on his Facebook page for a miracle more than a week before UBS realized that a large pot of its money had...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2011

Who's afraid of a little class warfare?

A week ago Monday, defending his plan to raise taxes on the rich to pay for job creation, President Barack Obama said: "This is not class warfare, it's math."
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2011

Noda, Aquino agree to counter China sea claims

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Philippines President Benigno Aquino III agreed Tuesday in Tokyo to forge closer maritime security ties to resolve disputes with China in the South China Sea.
Japan Times
JAPAN / POWERING THE FUTURE
Sep 27, 2011

Geothermal trove lies mostly untapped despite energy crisis

Deep in the mountains of Aso-Kuju National Park, which straddles the border of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, it's easy to believe you are in central Hokkaido rather than in central Kyushu. It's July, but the daytime temperature is in low 20s and evenings are, depending on your preference, either comfortably...
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2011

Protection law fails whistleblowers

The Tokyo High Court on Aug. 31 reversed a lower court ruling and ordered Olympus Corp. to pay ¥2.2 million in damages to a 50-year-old employee who argued that the firm transferred him to different sections three times in retaliation for blowing the whistle on his boss. The firm appealed the ruling...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 27, 2011

A compact guide to guidebooks on Japan

Despite the Internet revolution and resultant websites and blogs offering information about every conceivable aspect of any country you'd care to name, many people make sure a copy of their favorite guidebook is in their $500 suitcase or $5 backpack before boarding a plane.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Sep 27, 2011

No-nos for Noda: Japan's top 10 most useless PMs

On Sept. 2, Yoshihiko Noda was appointed the 95th prime minister of Japan, the sixth man (and they have all been men) to hold the job in five years. To mark this occasion and offer lessons to the new Democratic Party of Japan chief on how not to lead the country, the Community Page asked 10 writers to...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Sep 27, 2011

Ochiai given raw deal by Chunichi despite his successful run in dugout

A few years ago, before an All-Star game at Yokohama Stadium, while most players were relaxing, then-Chunichi Dragons slugger Tyrone Woods was feverishly fielding grounders at first base hit by his manager, Hiromitsu Ochiai.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Sep 27, 2011

Jamaica coffee, music recipe for success

Yukiko Ariga, 39, a Tokyo native, visited Jamaica, where her friend was living, twice on holiday because she loved reggae music. Eventually, she decided that she wanted to do something different in her life, so she went to live and work in the Caribbean nation in 1998.
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2011

Divining the will of a Russian puppet master

"He took off the Kremlin dog collar," said a friend of Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's third-richest man, as the political party Prokhorov had founded to run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the December elections blew up in his face this month.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2011

Is Obama worried about work yet?

Beleaguered President Barack Obama has come out fighting with two recent speeches focused on America's high unemployment rate. First, he gave an address to both houses of Congress, which is now being nicknamed the "jobs-jobs-jobs" speech, because Obama mentioned the word 37 times in 32 minutes. Then,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2011

Summer energy savings

As the Japanese summer turns to cooler weather and the peak energy use months of June, July and August pass, Japanese can congratulate themselves on one success — saving energy.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 25, 2011

Top architects lend their expertise to rebuilding

The involvement of architects in redeveloping the many towns and cities affected by March 11's Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami is not as common as might be expected.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 25, 2011

Single mothers konkatsu; origin of toy poodles; CM of the week: Sekisui Heim

Once upon a time, single mothers rarely talked about their situations. Obviously, that's changed, if the TBS special "Unmei no Konkatsu Tabi" ("The Journey to a Fateful Union"; Mon., 7 p.m.) is any indication.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Sep 25, 2011

Discoveries to delight on the very doorstep of The Japan Times

There's an expression in Japanese — Todai moto kurashi (The base of the lighthouse is dark) — which occurs to me as I leave the headquarters of The Japan Times in Shibaura. Though I regularly dock here, I realize I'm in the dark about the surrounding area, Minato Ward's manmade flatlands in Tokyo's...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2011

Keynes was not a big 'Keynesian'

What does it mean to be Keynesian? It was the British economist John Maynard Keynes who declared that when, like today, economic growth grinds to a standstill and businesses fail to provide enough jobs, governments have the ability, and the duty, to fill the gap.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past